A Little Help from a Blonde
by hinatasgreatestfan
Summary: A simple good deed leads to the formation of bonds of a most...unexpected kind. NaruHinaIno.
1. Scramble

Chapter 1

It all started with a good deed. Ino Yamanaka wanted to help out her friend, Hinata Hyuga, who was, to be blunt, too shy for her own good. Ino wanted to make sure that Hinata got her chance with the boy Hinata had liked for so long, the class knucklehead, Naruto Uzumaki. In the back of her mind, Ino knew that her plan could also mean that Naruto would completely forget about bringing back Sasuke, but she didn't even take _that_ into consideration. She just wanted to see Hinata, the sweetest girl Ino had ever met, happy, that's all.

How did things get so complicated from such a simple start?

Ino was walking around the Hidden Leaf Village one afternoon; she had the day off from working in her family's flower shop, and she was taking advantage of the free time. It was a beautiful sunny day, birds were singing, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. She gave a slight smile at this last observation, knowing it would cause no end of chagrin to one Shikamaru Nara, the laziest boy she had _ever_ met. Shaking her head to clear it of thoughts of the lazy boy, Ino turned her thoughts back to her plan to help out her shy friend.

It really was a simple plan. Use her family's signature jutsu to take over Hinata for a little while, approach the blond, sweep him off his feet, kiss him, and let Hinata take it from there. Ino wasn't exactly the best strategist in the world, but one thing she _did_ know how to do, or so she flattered herself into thinking, was how to get a boy's attention.

Ino happened to know that Hinata would be out training this afternoon in particular, and she knew where. She also knew that Naruto wouldn't be far away, so finding the dense blond would be a cinch. Ino had a confident look on her face as she approached the training ground where she knew Hinata would be. Looking up, Ino smiled when the dark-haired girl's figure came into view just ahead.

Had Ino not known better, she would have sworn Hinata was dancing. She was going up on the tip of one of her feet and spinning. It didn't seem to be doing anything, but Ino could sense that Hinata was trying her best to force chakra out from her body as she spun. So far, it seemed the dark-haired girl's luck at doing it was minimal at best.

Ino smiled; this was perfect. With Hinata trying to master her clan's famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) Rotation, the girl wouldn't be moving, and Ino would have an easy time using her own jutsu on her friend. Ino knew she could get into heaps of trouble for doing this, but, like the thing with Sasuke, she didn't even think twice about that. If she got in trouble for it, she'd take it, but if things went the way she hoped, she doubted Hinata would ever report her for this.

Ino took a deep breath, steadied her nerves, and took a firm hold on her chakra. Forming the hand sign for her family's signature jutsu, a rectangle made of her forefingers, middle fingers, and thumbs held in front of her eyes, she whispered, "Mind Transfer Jutsu!"

xxxxxx

Hinata sighed. This was getting really frustrating. She'd just tried for the 99th time today to perform Rotation properly, and failed _again_. There was no way in hell her clan would ever accept her as the heiress or head of the clan if she couldn't master the signature jutsu of the Main Branch.

Taking a deep breath, the lavender-eyed kunoichi forced chakra from every chakra point on her body, stood on the toes of one of her feet, and spun. "ROTATION!" she called out. Shocking even her, it worked!

As fate would have it, Ino's Mind Transfer Jutsu and Hinata's successful Rotation happened at the same time. Ino's spiritual energy, which Ino had sent toward Hinata with the intention of taking over the shy girl, bounced off the dome of chakra formed by Hinata's jutsu. Ino would have been shocked had she had the time to be so, but the ricochet caused by the collision of her jutsu with Hinata's sent her spiritual energy careening out of control through the trees surrounding the training ground. Ino had just enough control over her energy to keep it from slamming into anything, but not enough to avoid the orange blur that just happened to jump in front of it.

xxxxxx

Naruto had spent every second since he'd returned to the village without Sasuke training. He was determined to bring his friend back, so now he had to get stronger. Even on a beautiful sunny afternoon like this one, he was out in the training grounds, working until he could barely move. He was sparring with some of his clones when he dodged a low kick by jumping a bit higher than intended. As he did, he felt like something slammed into the back of his head, _hard_, and then he suddenly felt like he weighed nothing. The next thing he knew, he was moving, seemingly out of control of himself. He caught a brief glimpse of Hinata spinning and slowly coming to a stop before he slammed into her...but for some odd reason he felt nothing. What he did feel was his clones dispelling back where he'd been before he felt that...thing slam into him.

xxxxxx

Hinata had just stopped spinning from her first successful Rotation when she felt like something slammed into her back. With a gasp, she stumbled forward as an unidentified force pulled her toward a spot in the trees in front of her. She caught a brief glimpse of Ino before slamming into the blond girl, but she felt nothing. The three young ninja fell to the ground, unconscious.

xxxxxx

Sakura sighed as she came upon her passed-out teammate at their old training ground. On the one hand, she was glad Naruto was taking his promise to bring Sasuke back so seriously, but, on the other, his obsessive training drove her insane! And now he'd worked himself so hard he'd passed out in the middle of training...AGAIN! "NARUTO!" she yelled in frustration.

Sitting up, Naruto put his hands on his head and looked around in confusion for a moment. Shaking his head, he seemed to finally see Sakura standing there. Sakura expected him to either grin and ask what she needed or rub the back of his head, but she never would have expected what he _did_ in a thousand years. "What the hell are you doing here, billboard brow?" he asked. After he spoke, he got a really confused look on his face, like he didn't recognize his own voice or something. Sakura, though, was too pissed to care. She stalked toward him, hands balled into fists, eyes enraged.

When she got within arm's reach of Naruto, Sakura swung. To her massive surprise, Naruto blocked her punch! He'd never once done that before. "What the hell are you doing, Sakura?" he asked, then, surprising her even more, he decked her across the face! He wasn't holding back with that punch...Sakura swung once more, and this time, Naruto ducked under her swing and came up with an uppercut to rival the one he'd hit Neji with in the Chunin Exams...which resulted in an unconscious Sakura laying on the ground.

"_Why the hell did billboard brow try to hit me like that?"_ Ino thought, not yet realizing she wasn't exactly herself...until she looked down at herself, that is.

xxxxxx

"_Where the hell is Ino when I need her?"_ Asuma Sarutobi asked himself as he walked around the village. Taking a puff on his cigarette, the man tripped over something laying across the forest path he was walking down. Looking down, he found, to his surprise, that Ino was laying just off the path, unconscious, and her leg was sticking out onto the path, which had caused him to trip. Of course, he was a Jonin, so he didn't fall, but it was still a bit embarrassing.

Leaning down over the girl, Asuma gripped the canteen on his belt and splashed Ino's face with some water. Ino gasped and sputtered a little, then sat up and looked around, confused. Seeing Asuma, she blushed a little and stuttered, "Oh, A-Asuma-sensei! W-What are you d-doing here?" Asuma was a little put off by this; he hadn't heard Ino stutter...well, ever! And the look of surprise on her face at her own voice was a bit odd, too.

Shaking off his confusion, Asuma helped the girl to her feet and decided to go through with his original intentions anyway. "I was looking for you, actually. I need you to do me a favor," he said. Ino looked up at him, her confusion obvious on her face. "I need you to find out what Kurenai thinks of me."

Ino blushed deeply, but then she said, in a voice that sounded much more like the Ino he knew, "She likes you, of course!" Asuma grinned. That's what he'd been hoping to hear. But wait...how did Ino know? "She's been hoping you'll ask her out for months now, but don't tell her I told you that!" Ino said the last part quickly, like she was more afraid of Kurenai finding out about this than anything else.

It was then that Ino looked down at herself.

xxxxxx

Kiba Inuzuka smiled when he found his teammate passed out on the ground at the base of one of the training stumps in the training ground their team usually used. With her pale skin, lavender eyes, and dark hair, Kiba had always thought Hinata was the single most beautiful girl in the world. Since being put on a team with her, he had done his best to put aside his attraction for her and be the best teammate he could be to her, but he couldn't help it...she was just so damned HOT!

Moving over to the indigo-haired girl, Kiba knelt beside her and pulled out the smelling salts he and their third teammate, Shino Aburame, had taken to carrying on them at all times for just these situations. Waving them under the girl's nose, Kiba had to dodge backward when she sat up with her arms flailing; had he not, he would likely have gotten a broken nose from being slapped.

Hinata looked at Kiba a moment, then sighed, "What are you doing here, Kiba?" She looked surprised at the sound of her own voice for a moment, then shook her head like she was trying to clear her ears.

Kiba sighed, then gave his teammate a small smile. _"Well, right to the point I guess,"_ he thought to himself. "Look, Hinata, I know you like Naruto and all," he began. Hinata looked at him, surprised, then seemed to sink into her thoughts. Kiba didn't notice as he was already rambling on about how Hinata could do better than Naruto and such.

"_Hinata likes me?"_ Naruto thought. He was kind of assuming he had accidentally turned on his Sexy Jutsu at this point, seeing as Kiba was addressing him as Hinata...though why he'd use it to turn into a clothed Hinata, he had no idea. Regardless, he thought about Kiba's words and the things he'd noticed about Hinata up to this point: she was always blushing whenever he looked at her, she always seemed really shy, and, come to think of it, she was only like that around _him!_ Well, that certainly made sense out of that, didn't it? Naruto wasn't really paying attention to Kiba, rather he was focusing on his own thoughts, which seemed to make sense now, so he nodded to himself.

It was unfortunate for Kiba that the timing of this worked out the way it did. Kiba had just said, "So, if you'd just give me a chance..." and trailed off when Hinata nodded. He grinned. "That's my girl!" he said, slapping Hinata playfully on her behind.

This action snapped Naruto, who was in Hinata's body, out of his reverie. He glared at Kiba. "Don't you dare slap my ass, Kiba Inuzuka!" he yelled and decked Kiba rather soundly across the face. Kiba spun around 180 degrees and fell to the ground, unconscious. Naruto then formed the seal to release his transformation...which changed nothing. _"I'm in Hinata's body..."_ he realized.

Three voices rang out at the same time, the tone and inflections making it clear, despite the voices, who was speaking from each body.

"WHY AM I IN NARUTO'S BODY?" Ino yelled.

"WHY AM I IN HINATA'S BODY?" Naruto roared.

"WHY AM I IN INO'S BODY?" Hinata cried.

The proximity of the three young ninja meant that all three heard the yells of the other two. Hinata in particular heard Naruto's yell. "Naruto's in me!" she squeaked out in Ino's voice before fainting.

Asuma, who had been standing next to Ino the whole time, suddenly realized what had happened, though he had absolutely no idea _how_ it happened. There was only one thing he could say about this very annoying situation, and that's exactly what he said: "Ah, SHIT!"

xxxxxx

On the other side of the village, Shikamaru and Choji were just sitting down to have lunch. The two had been training together that morning, and they had plans for the afternoon, but for now they were taking a break to eat. Just as the two sat down, Shikamaru gave a mighty shiver. Choji looked at him in confusion. "Something just happened that's going to be a _real_ drag," he said.

Choji had heard his friend say that a few times, but he never knew how he knew. "How do you know?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Shikamaru groaned. "My Ino sense is tingling!" he said.

Choji could only say one thing to that, and say it he did: "Ah, SHIT!"

xxxxxx

Tsunade looked at the newspaper in her hand and gasped. _"No, it couldn't be..."_ she thought to herself. She reached into the drawer of her desk and pulled out the lottery ticket she'd bought that day. She checked, double-checked, and checked again, but sure enough, her ticket had won. Tsunade yelled, "SHIZUNE, GET IN HERE!"

Moments later, Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice, was in the room. "Yes, Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade told her apprentice, "Put the village on high alert, something is terribly wrong!"

Shizune looked confused a moment at the vague comment, then Tsunade turned the newspaper and lottery ticket toward the dark-haired woman and slammed a finger onto them. Shizune looked. Realizing what Tsunade was pointing out, Shizune could only say one thing: "Ah, SHIT!"

xxxxxx

Anko Mitarashi looked at her superior, Ibiki Morino, in confusion. "What did you call me for, Ibiki?"

Ibiki snarled at her typical lack of respect, but he ignored it for the moment. "I had to tell you, something's very wrong. I'm not sure what it is, but something isn't right," he said.

Anko was surprised she didn't get reprimanded for her attitude as usual; this was really serious. Straightening her back, she asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Well, for one thing, you know how Tsunade's luck is...when she wins something, shit gets bad," he said. Anko nodded. "She just won the lottery." Anko gasped and gained a fearful look on her face. "Plus, you know how my instincts are; hell, I almost called the day the Kyubi invaded. You remember." Anko nodded again; oh yeah, she remembered that. Ibiki hadn't stopped gloating about it for almost a year after it happened! "Anyway, I've got a feeling like that again...I haven't had a feeling this strong since the Kyubi invaded in fact..." he trailed off.

Anko thought about that. If Ibiki hadn't had a feeling this strong since the Kyubi...there was only one thing to be said: "Ah, SHIT!"

xxxxxx

Jiraiya was just outside the main gate of the Leaf Village when he heard it. Coming from one of the training grounds, the Hokage Tower, a random restaurant, and the Torture and Interrogation Department's Headquarters, all at the same time. A cry arose of "Ah, SHIT!"

Jiraiya sighed deeply. "Naruto, what the hell did you do this time?" he asked his absent apprentice.


	2. Revelation

A/N: To avoid confusion, I will be consistently referring to Ino, Naruto, and Hinata as who they actually _are,_ not the body they're in at the moment. However, if the name is surrounded by quotation marks ("Naruto" for example), it's the body of that person that's being referenced. This is both to avoid confusion in the reader as to who is actually speaking and to illustrate the confusion the characters are suffering themselves; this is not an easy thing to write, it's confusing as all hell, so please, bear with me. Also, since the bodies they're in currently belong to the one in the body, I will refer to Ino's body as "hers" even though the body is technically male and Naruto's as "his" even though it's female...as stated, I realize this will be somewhat confusing, but please, just bear with me. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Asuma, the only shinobi who had been within hearing range of the three body-confused preteens, picked up Ino's unconscious form and called out to the indigo-haired figure not far from him, "Naruto?" As he'd expected, the figure turned. "Find Ino, she's wherever you were, and bring her and Kiba to the Hokage's office. I'll meet you there."

Naruto nodded and slapped Kiba's face soundly. Coming to slowly, Kiba shook his head then asked, "What did you hit me like that for, Hinata? I was just playing around!"

Naruto sighed. _"Right, I'm in Hinata's body,"_ he thought to himself. "Don't ask me to explain this right now, Kiba, but I'm not Hinata. I'm Naruto. Now come on, we need to find Ino. She's in my body, over this way," he said quickly, then turned and made his way through the trees to where he'd been training. Sure enough, he found "himself" within minutes. "Ino, I presume?" he asked. Ino nodded in response. "Come on, Asuma-sensei wants us to meet him in the Hokage's office." As he spoke, he noticed Sakura's unconscious form nearby. He sighed again. "Better wake her up. She should be there, too."

Ino nodded slowly, then made her way over to Sakura and smacked her face, albeit more gently than Naruto had done to Kiba. "Sakura, wake up," she said. Sakura opened her eyes and looked around groggily. "Come on, Sakura, Lady Hokage wants to see us in her office," Ino half-lied; Tsunade might not want to see them, per sé, but she would soon enough.

Sakura stood up and nodded, still somewhat woozy. It took her a moment to remember what had happened, then she yelled at Ino, who she still thought was Naruto for obvious reasons, "Why did you hit me, Naruto?"

Ino sighed. _"This is going to get to be a real drag, to quote Shikamaru,"_ she thought to herself. _"And I can't believe I just did that!"_ Turning to Sakura, she said in the calmest voice she could manage, "Don't ask any questions just yet, Sakura, everything will be explained when we get to the Hokage's office." Seeing that "Naruto" was deadly serious, Sakura reluctantly nodded.

Soon enough, Sakura, Kiba, Naruto, and Ino had made their way to the Hokage's office. By the time they got there, they found a surprising number of shinobi waiting for them. Shikamaru, Choji, Ibiki, Anko, Tsunade, Shizune, and Jiraiya were all in attendance. Asuma was also there, still holding the unconscious Hinata, but Naruto at least had expected _that._ Tsunade was sitting behind her desk, fingers massaging her temples. Given the ten shinobi who currently populated her office, she had to ask them one question: "Naruto, what the hell did you do this time?"

Naruto sighed and, looking straight up, yelled out, "Why does everyone always assume everything is my fault?"

Everyone looked at "Hinata" in shock. Other than Ino and Asuma, everyone was asking themselves the same question: _"When the hell did Hinata start to yell like that?"_ Then it sank in exactly what "she" had said, and their thought changed to: _"Wait, what?"_

Tsunade massaged her temples again, glaring at her desk and half wishing it would burst into flames and take that accursed paperwork with it. After a moment, she pointed at "Hinata", "So, you're Naruto?" she asked. The indigo-haired figure nodded. She pointed at "Naruto" next. "Let me guess, Ino?" Again, she got a nod. Turning to Asuma, she finished, "And I assume you're carrying Hinata." Asuma nodded, his confusion clear on his face. _"At least I'm not the only one who is utterly baffled by this,"_ Tsunade thought to herself.

Shikamaru sank to his knees and formed a rectangle with his hands. His eyes closed, and anyone who didn't know the boy would have thought he was sleeping. Position assumed, the lazy boy began to think. Asuma sighed; he was glad to see Shikamaru was putting that brain of his to work on this one. He was fairly sure only a genius like him would be able to figure out _this_ mess.

Jiraiya was in the back of the room, caught between taking notes and laughing. When asked later, he would claim the notes were jutsu notes, but no one would believe that, of course. _"This is a perfect story for my next book!"_ he kept thinking as his pencil flew over his notepad furiously.

Choji had frozen when Tsunade mentioned where the three body-confused shinobi currently found themselves. The heavyset boy had been harboring a crush on Ino for almost as long as Shikamaru had been complaining about everything being a drag. As it slowly dawned on him that Ino was currently in Naruto's body, the boy had a very disturbing thought run through his mind: _"If I have a crush on Ino...and Ino's in Naruto's body...does that mean I have a crush on Naruto?"_ At that, the young Akimichi promptly put away his chips; suddenly, he'd lost his appetite.

Kiba was still in shock from hearing that Naruto was somehow in Hinata's body. _"I slapped Naruto on the ass!"_ he thought to himself. _"And I liked it! Oh...oh, no...I cannot be gay, there's no way!"_ Shaking his head to get rid of _that_ thought, Kiba accidentally flung Akamaru across the room. The small white puppy collided with the side of Anko's head.

Anko hissed, "If you don't want me to feed this...creature to my snakes, I suggest you retrieve it _immediately!"_ Kiba, naturally, did. Anko, meanwhile, was thinking to herself, _"Okay, this is weird, and I'd bet ryo to dumplings this is what Ibiki 'sensed' or whatever, but, really, what's so bad about this?"_ Then she started thinking about the ramifications of a boy being in a girl's body and vice versa and promptly decided that she didn't _want_ to think about that! _"Yep, this is as bad as the Kyubi,"_ she concluded.

Ibiki felt an oncoming migraine. _"This is going to be trouble for the entire village, I just know it,"_ he thought to himself. _"And this just _had_ to happen just after the Uchiha defected, too, didn't it? This village is freaking doomed!"_ Of course, Ibiki was wise enough to know better than to say any of this in Tsunade's presence, so he simply kept his mouth shut and his face expressionless.

Shizune just sighed. _"Well, I guess we can take the village off high alert now. We _know_ what's wrong, at least,"_ she thought. _"This is still confusing as all hell, but still, at least we know what's going on now!"_ Ever the optimist, Shizune didn't even begin to consider the ramifications of exactly what had happened...or exactly _how_ it had happened in the first place, for that matter; her primary concern at the moment was that they didn't have to worry that the village was going to be destroyed anymore.

Sakura's jaw had made itself a new home somewhere around the top of her stomach. Slowly closing it, she sighed. _"Well, I guess it does make sense. After all, there's no way Naruto would call me what 'he' did before...but Ino...yeah, she would,"_ she thought to herself. _"I guess that explains why 'Ino' over there is unconscious, too. I've never known her to faint, but Hinata does all the time, so that fits, too."_ Turning to Naruto, she asked, "This isn't just one of your pranks, is it? This is really happening."

Naruto nodded. "I'm afraid so, Sakura," he said. Shaking his head a bit, he added, "It's going to take a while to get used to hearing Hinata's voice whenever I talk."

As the boy finished speaking, Hinata slowly awoke. "W-Where am I?" she asked, then shook her head at the voice she heard when she spoke; it _definitely_ wasn't hers. Asuma set her on her feet, and the shy girl took stock of where she was and who else was there with her. "What's going on?" she asked upon seeing "herself" looking back at her with a huge grin on "her" face.

Tsunade smiled. "Glad to see you decided to join us, Hinata," she said kindly. "And we're trying to figure out exactly that ourselves."

As she said this, Shikamaru stood up from his thinking pose and looked straight at Ino. He asked the blond one simple question: "Does everything you do have to be such a pain?"

Ino tried to look innocent; she only succeeded in making Naruto's face look totally ridiculous. "What makes you think I had anything to do with this?" she asked nervously.

Shikamaru sighed and shook his head. "Oh, come on, Ino, I know your jutsu as well as you do. This is clearly your doing, somehow or another. So just come clean, what did you do?"

Ino sighed. _"There's nothing for it, I guess,"_ she thought. _"But I am _not_ telling them all why I was doing it! No way, not happening!"_ She sighed again. "All right, all right, yes, I did cause this, but I swear it was completely by accident! I was just practicing with my Mind Transfer Jutsu, I missed my target, I guess I hit Hinata...and now this!"

Hinata spoke up softly at this point. "I was trying to master Rotation. I finally did it...and then the next thing I knew, I was in Ino's body somehow!"

Shikamaru nodded. _"I figured it was something like that,"_ he thought to himself. "Okay, the way I figure it, somehow or another your Rotation deflected Ino's Mind Transfer Jutsu, though I had no idea that was even possible. I guess it flew from there to Naruto here, and the three of you ended up swapping bodies in the process."

Naruto rubbed his chin briefly. "I guess that would explain that thing I felt slam into my back when I was training," he said. "I guess that was you, huh, Ino?"

Ino nodded. "I guess so."

Tsunade massaged her temples again, listening to her shinobi talking. "Well, Naruto, Hinata, Ino, you three have certainly gotten yourselves into a hell of a mess, haven't you?" she said.

Naruto whined, "Hey, I didn't even do anything! I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!"

Tsunade nodded, acknowledging Naruto's point. "Be that as it may," she said, "that doesn't change the simple fact that you are in Hinata's body." Suddenly, she thought of something. Turning to Ino, she asked, "Have you tried to dispel your jutsu?"

Ino looked around at all the expectant looks on everyone's faces...and promptly face-palmed. Forming the sign to release her Mind Transfer Jutsu, she focused for a moment, then looked up and shook her head. "It isn't working. I'm really not sure why, but it's just not doing anything at all. It's like...like the jutsu thinks this is really my own body or something."

Tsunade sighed. "Well, this gets more and more troubling the longer we sit and talk about it. For the time being, I'm removing you three from the active roster officially. Unofficially, I want you three, and especially you, Ino, to do everything in your power to figure out what exactly caused this and what you all can do about it." They all nodded. "Oh, and Ino?" Said girl nodded again. "Make sure you talk to your father, he might be able to help out somehow."

"Yeah, or he might just kill me for using our jutsu against a fellow shinobi of the Leaf Village!" she said back.

Tsunade shook her head. "Even if he was going to actually attack you, which I rather doubt he would, I don't even want to _think_ about the repercussions one of you getting hurt or dying right now would cause! Regardless, it's a chance we'll have to take, we need all the help we can get on this one."

Ino sighed, then nodded. "I guess that's true. I'm going to need Naruto and Hinata to come with me, though, otherwise I doubt he'll believe me."

Naruto rested a hand on Ino's shoulder. "There's no way I'm letting you put my body at risk without me being there," he told her, giving her a small smile as he spoke.

Hinata giggled, then rested a hand on Ino's other shoulder. "We're all in this together," she said. "So we'll face your father together."

Ino smiled. "Thanks, you two," she said softly, tears forming in her eyes.

Naruto scoffed. "Oh, stop that, that body hasn't cried in years, it doesn't need a black mark on its record because of you!" he said; his smile belied his words, though. Everyone laughed.

Tsunade spoke up again. "All right, all of you, get out of here. This whole situation is to be kept as quiet as possible for now, am I clear?" Everyone nodded. "Ino, after you and the others talk to your father, come back here, and we'll figure out what to do with you three for the night."

"Yes, Lady Tsunade," Ino replied.

As everyone was about to leave, Tsunade spoke once more, "Oh, Naruto, stay behind a minute."

A moment later, only Naruto and Tsunade were left in the office. "What's up, Granny?" he asked.

Tsunade chuckled. "That still sounds really weird in Hinata's voice," she said back. Naruto scowled. Tsunade laughed again. "And I hate to tell you, Naruto, but that simply looks adorable!" Naruto crossed his arms and humphed, trying to level a glare at the Hokage, who just laughed even harder. "And so does that!"

Naruto threw up his arms in frustration. "Okay, Granny, enough!" he said. "You asked me to stay behind for a reason, so what do you want?"

It took Tsunade a minute to stop laughing. When she finally did, she took a deep breath, then leveled Naruto with a look that would have frightened Hiashi and turned Jiraiya away from peeping _forever._ "I'm fully well aware that you're going to have to eventually see Hinata's body in its entirety, given the current circumstances. However, if I hear that you've done _anything_ perverted to it or with it, I swear on all that is holy, I will make it medically impossible for you to have children," she told him. Naruto instinctively clutched at his groin, not remembering until he did so that he wasn't currently in his own body. Of course, his instinctive reaction only served as further proof to Tsunade that this whole thing _had_ in fact happened and wasn't some elaborate prank. "Now, get out of here, you have to meet Inoichi with the others."

Naruto nodded seriously and left. When Tsunade was alone in her office, her head fell to her desk as she let out a mighty groan. "I need a drink!" she complained.

Shizune appeared from nowhere and handed Tsunade a small cup of sake. Tsunade looked at Shizune, utterly confused, then decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. She downed the drink, then got a shock when Shizune poured herself a cup and downed it. "I think we both needed that," she said.

Tsunade grinned. "I'm glad I'm not the only one," she said. Sighing, she added, "What in the blazes are we going to do about this one?"

Shizune shrugged, then said, "Be glad Naruto isn't to blame for once?"

Tsunade poured them both a second drink and raised hers. "I'll drink to that," she said. Shizune clinked her glass to Tsunade's, and both downed the second drink.

xxxxxx

Outside the Hokage Tower, the small group dispersed. Ino and Hinata waited for Naruto to come out. Jiraiya headed straight for the village bathhouse. Sakura didn't seem to be aware of where she was going, she was just...going. Asuma had a determined look on his face as he headed toward Kurenai's home. Ibiki and Anko headed toward the Torture and Interrogation Department's headquarters, their faces blank. Both of them were thinking furiously, but anyone seeing them would have assumed they were simply focusing on where they were going. Shikamaru headed toward his home, rubbing his forehead as he continued to think deeply about this whole situation. Kiba and Choji had identical looks of disgust on their faces. After they got a short distance from the Hokage Tower, Ino and Hinata heard them both yell, "I AM NOT GAY FOR NARUTO!"

Ino looked at Hinata and asked, "What was that about?" Hinata just shrugged. A moment later, Naruto walked out of the tower and joined the other two. Ino sighed. "Well, now that we're all here, I guess there's nothing for it. Let's go see my father." The other two nodded, and the three made their way to Ino's family's flower shop.

Inoichi looked up when he heard the door open. He smiled when he saw Ino, Naruto, and Hinata entering the shop. "Hey there, Ino, Naruto, Hinata," he said politely. "And what can I do for you three?"

Ino sighed. "Daddy, I'm over here," she said.

Inoichi looked at her in shock. "Wait...you're Ino?" he asked. Ino nodded, hoping her father would know it was her despite the male body and spiky hair she had accrued in the last couple hours. Inoichi turned to Hinata. "And you?"

"H-Hinata Hyuga, sir," she said back, stammering slightly under his scrutinizing gaze. Inoichi had no choice but to believe _that_ one at least; he couldn't think of the last time he'd heard his daughter stutter.

Turning to the final member of the entourage, he asked, "And you're Naruto, I presume?" Naruto nodded. Inoichi had seen many things in his years as a ninja, but _this_ beat them all. He doubted he'd ever see anything quite like this again, either. As the information sunk in and he realized that his daughter's mind was somehow currently residing in the body of the Leaf Village's jinchuriki, Inoichi did something Ino couldn't have predicted in a million years. He fainted.


	3. Father

Chapter 3

Ino looked at her two body-swapped friends, barely resisting the urge to shake her head on seeing "herself" looking back at her. "Well, I didn't see that coming," she said. _"I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing that voice when I talk,"_ she thought to herself.

Naruto chuckled. "I wonder what made him do that," he said after a moment. Turning to Hinata, he added, "I doubt it's the same reason you always do that."

Hinata blushed deeply and, twiddling her fingers, responded, "W-Well, no, I would s-suppose not."

Naruto looked at her closely. _"That really is cute,"_ he thought to himself. Then a thought occurred to him. _"Is it Hinata's...habit...or is it Ino's body doing that that's so cute?"_ He fell into a preoccupied silence as he tried – and failed – to differentiate the one from the other. The mannerism was indelibly linked to the body doing it...at least at the moment. Still, he knew in the back of his mind that it was Hinata he found himself attracted to, regardless of the body she currently inhabited.

Having Naruto's focus on her so intently made Hinata's blush increase all the more. Ino, taking pity on her, said, "Naruto, stop staring at her, you're going to make her faint again."

Naruto jumped slightly at the sound of...well, his own voice. "Oh! Sorry, Hinata," he said, turning his attention elsewhere. "Is your dad okay, Ino?" he asked after a moment.

Ino turned and looked at her dad. "He doesn't seem to be hurt," she said after a moment. Moving over by the man, she knelt down and shook him a bit. "Dad! Wake up!"

After a moment, Inoichi's eyes slowly fluttered open. Shaking his head, he looked around and found "Naruto" kneeling over him. "Ino?" he said after a second. Ino nodded. "Okay, what in the world happened?" he asked, reaching one hand up to his head as if he had a headache; he was in fact starting to get one.

It took a few minutes for Ino and Naruto to get Inoichi – and, by consequence, Hinata – caught up on what had happened among the three of them in the woods that day. Hinata made a brief mental note to corner Ino later and ask her why she _really_ tried to Mind Transfer into her. Naruto and Ino both noted as they told the story how easy it was for them to take turns telling the story; it reminded them both of passing a ball back and forth, and it was almost scarily easy for them to do it. Hinata also noticed the ease with which they told their tale in total tandem and had to fight off a flare of jealousy. _"It's not like I've done anything to lay claim to him, after all,"_ she told herself. Still, she wished desperately that it was Naruto and her doing that.

Once the story was finished, Inoichi sat down hard on the stool behind the store's counter. "That's quite the story, you two," he said. "I'm guessing Hinata there was unconscious when you told the Hokage about it?" The other two nodded, and he continued, "We need to find a way to undo this, but I've honestly never heard of the Mind Transfer Jutsu doing anything like this. To be fair, though, I've never heard of it being deflected by anything, either...or of it hitting the Rotation, so I guess this is all pretty uncharted waters." That said, he began to pace, the look on his face making it clear he was concentrating hard.

Turning back to his friends, Naruto said, "You know, with our bodies all screwed up like this, we could pull off some seriously awesome pranks!"

Ino giggled, which sounded very weird to everyone who heard it since it was Naruto's voice doing the giggling. When she looked back at Naruto, there was a mischievous glint in her eye. "You know, Naruto, I like your style," she said after a minute. Turning to Hinata, she added, "What do you say, Hinata, you in?"

Hinata blushed as the attention of both Ino and Naruto turned to her. It was like having Naruto's attention on her...twice over. On the one hand, she had Naruto's actual attention on her coming from her own eyes. On the other, she had Ino's attention on her coming from Naruto's eyes. She had never felt anything quite so intense. _"I can't disappoint Naruto,"_ she thought. _"If I want to stand by him when it matters, I need to stand by him now as well."_ Turning to her friends, still blushing, she said, "Sure, s-sounds fun."

Inoichi spoke up just then. "Before you three go off on whatever crusade you have planned, Naruto, have you told them about...your secret?" he asked. Naruto froze for a moment, then shook his head. "Well, before you do anything else, get somewhere where you three can talk privately and tell them. I don't want my daughter to find out about that the hard way, thank you very much." Naruto nodded and very slowly walked toward the door of the flower shop. Ino and Hinata followed him, both worried and curious. "Oh, and would you three please leave me out of it?!" Inoichi called after them.

"No promises, Dad!" Ino called back.

xxxxxx

It took them a little while with Naruto's slow walk, but eventually the three of them found themselves at an empty training ground. Naruto sat down hard, then rubbed at his tailbone. Turning to Hinata, he told her, "You aren't as well-padded as I am back there, Hinata." Because it was Naruto, he never even thought about what he had just said until Hinata blushed a deep red. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

Hinata smiled a bit. "I know, Naruto, it's fine," she said back. That said, the two girls sat down in front of Naruto. Surprising everyone there, it was Hinata who spoke up first. "All right, Naruto, what's this big secret of yours?"

Naruto sighed deeply. "Well...you two know how we've been told the Fourth Hokage killed the Nine-Tailed Fox, right?" he asked. Both of them nodded, unsure where he was going with that. "Well, that's not quite true. He couldn't kill the fox, I guess, he could only seal it. And he sealed it...into me." Turning to Ino, he added, "Or, rather, into that body."

Ino gasped. "So...you mean he's..." she tapped her temple, "...in here?"

"Well, technically, he's in there," Naruto replied, pointing to "his" belly. "But if you mean could you go into my mindscape and meet him, yes, you could."

Ino sighed and thought about that a moment. "Well, I guess that explains why you're such a good prankster," she said after a moment. "You kind of have the king of all pranksters locked in your gut!"

Naruto sighed in relief. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. But just for the record, all my pranks were my own ideas, they had nothing to do with that blasted fox," he said with a grin.

Ino chuckled slightly. "That still looks weird, seeing your smile on her face like that," she said.

"Yeah, well, if you hadn't been randomly practicing an offensive jutsu without a target, that never would have happened," Naruto responded with a playful grin.

"Yeah, well, if you weren't so dedicated to training that you were even out here training on a day like this, I wouldn't have hit you, now would I?" Ino snarked back, hands on her hips.

Naruto busted out laughing. "That looks absolutely hilarious when it's basically me doing it. Suddenly I totally understand why Jiraiya found that so funny when I did it to him!" he managed to get out between laughs.

Ino glared at Naruto, blushing a bit. "It's really too bad your dad sealed the fox into you, if he was still here he could have taught you how to treat a lady!" she humphed out.

Naruto and Hinata both froze. Naruto slowly sat up. "My...dad?" he asked. "But...the Fourth Hokage sealed the fox..." he said, trailing off as what Ino had said really sunk into his brain. All three of them turned to look at the Hokage Faces as one, and as they all stared at the face of the Fourth, they all thought the same thing. _"Maybe...maybe he is..."_ they thought. Turning back to one another, their faces full of shock, they were about to say more when a new voice called out.

"Naruto!" the voice called. Turning, the three of them saw Sakura, who had yelled, followed closely by Kakashi and Jiraiya, of all people, coming up to them. Jiraiya _already_ had his notepad out and was taking notes.

"Oh, hey, Sakura," Naruto said. "What's going on?"

Kakashi's lone visible eye looked shocked as "Hinata" responded to the greeting. Shaking his head, he said, "I didn't want to believe it, but it's really true, huh?"

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei, it's really true," Naruto responded. Kakashi had to take a second to compose himself from the oddity of hearing "Hinata" call him that. "What are you three doing here?" Naruto asked after a moment.

"Well, I came along because I had to see it for myself," Kakashi said.

"Come on, you really think I was going to miss a chance to take notes on you three?" Jiraiya put in.

"Actually, Naruto, we've been assigned a mission," Sakura said, all three of them speaking at the same time.

Naruto shook his head. "Granny Tsunade took the three of us off the active roster for the foreseeable future to give us some time to figure this mess out," he told Sakura. "So...if you have a mission, you'll have to ask someone else to go with you. I've been restricted to the village."

"Oh...right...okay, see ya," Sakura said, then turned and left.

Kakashi looked at the three Genin in front of him. "Well, this is quite the conundrum you've got yourself into this time, Naruto," he said blithely. "I'll leave you three to it." With that, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto, Hinata and Ino turned their attention then to the one remaining interrupter. After a few moments, Jiraiya eventually turned to look at them.

"Something we can do for you, Pervy Sage?" Naruto asked, giving him a glare.

Jiraiya let his mind run away with that question for a moment, then shook his head and told Naruto, "You'll never intimidate anyone with a glare like that, kid. But no, there's nothing you can do for me, so don't mind me, just talk amongst yourselves like I'm not even here."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he turned back to his friends. "If we ignore him long enough, he'll wander off. Trust me, I'm used to him," he told the two girls. "Besides, we've got a prank to plan."

The three leaned in and huddled together. Naruto spoke softly, and every so often, Ino would give a loud laugh or Hinata would giggle softly as the prankster laid out his idea to them. After several minutes of this, all three of them started laughing. Soon, they were all laying on their backs, laughing uproariously. Naruto was the first one to recover. Grinning at his two friends, he held out his hands. "Let's do this," he said.

The two girls each took one of his hands. Closing their eyes, the three of them each exercised their chakra strength, be it control or reserves, manipulating their chakra together in ways none of them would have expected. Watching this, Jiraiya thought to himself, _"Maybe since they're in one another's bodies right now, they can manipulate one another's chakra, too...makes as much sense as anything else in this mess, I suppose."_ What he didn't realize was, even at that very moment, he was already falling victim to the largest prank the leaf village had ever seen.

The Next Morning

Tsunade woke up and dragged herself out of her bed. Blinking sleepily, she made her way to her closet, got dressed without paying much attention to what she was putting on, then made her way to her window. Looking outside, she froze solid. Stretching before her was the Leaf Village, the same as always...except everything she could see was made of BACON! The buildings, the clothes people were wearing, the bowls and trays being used by restaurants and food venders and such, _everything_ she could see was made of bacon! Blinking hard, sure she was seeing things, Tsunade stopped a moment, chuckled, then turned and walked out of her room, wearing her normal coat. _"Well, it looks like Ibiki and I were right. The village is in for a time like nothing it's seen since the Nine-Tailed Fox invaded. This is going to be fun!"_ she thought to herself as she made her way to her office.


End file.
